Saturday, March 8, 2008

Thiresi Charika (Field trip to Dombagaskanda)



“Thiresi Charika” (Tour of Thrush) is the environmental field trip that ECO-V conducts for its members every other month.
ECO-V team took their members on 1st “Thiresi Charika” for year 2008 on March 2nd.to Dombagaskanda forest reserve situated in Colombo District. This forest reserve is a well known place for many forest birds. Starting at 5 a clock in the morning ECO-V members had a very relaxing field trip with more than 30 bird species recorded within half a day. We also observed a group of Western Purple-faced langur in the same locality and I followed them with Harsha for about half an hour to observe their behaviour. There was a migratory Chestnut-winged cuckoo (Red-winged Crested Cuckoo) on our track and it was the first sighting of this species for many ECO-V members. Many endemic birds like Grey Horn bill, Yellow fronted Barbet, Spot-winged Thrush, Lorikeet, Jungle fowl, Spur fowl and migratory species like Brown-breasted fly catcher, Paradise Fly catcher, Chestnut-winged cuckoo, brown Shrike were among the recorded bird species during this tour. I could show my members behaviour of Lesser Yellownape woodpecker and a pair of Malabar Trogon for a long period which gave them a satisfaction of being in the wild. A display of a Giant squirrel on our way gave us an opportunity to think and discuss about our role in conservation.
We all were offered a herbal drink for the breakfast and were invited for lunch by the group of Buddhists who were there to offer arms for the Monastery situated in the reserve. It was a great offer for all of us as we did not take the lunch with us. After enjoying birds and peaceful forest habitat and a delicious lunch prepared for the Buddhist forestry monks we all returned to Colombo in the afternoon.










1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sorry for the ignorance, but could you say where exactly this is located - could visit on a free week end.
thanks!